Every schoolchild knows the story of how America began: the Puritans set sail on the Mayflower in 1620, landed at Plymouth Rock...and the rest is history.

Or is it?

Now, this authoritative, accessible book tells the real story. It is a story of struggle, as Anglicans, Catholics, Separatists, Dissenters, and Puritans all vied for control of America-and lost. It is a story of rebellion, revolution, and secret currents of power concealed behind a veneer of Christianity, shaping the fate of a nation.

The Secret Founding of America:

charts an earlier landfall-the 1607 founding of the Jamestown colony-that brought to the New World two radically opposed worldviews: the rural ethic of Elizabethan England and the rationalist ideals of Freemasonry

reveals the real influences that forged the republic-from Scottish Templars to Enlightenment Deists to German Illuminati-and captured the minds of the Founding Fathers, including Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington

raises provocative questions-Were the Templars looking for a new Atlantis? Was the Constitution a Freemasonic coup? Did the Civil War mean decisive victory for the Freemasons? Are today's leaders under their influence too?

explores the implications of this hidden history for 400 years of America's past, for the politics of the present, and for the world of our future

draws together all the key documents of America's origins-as no other book has done-in a single appendix for accessible, authoritative reference